[CPProt.net] Oslo Police Charge Second Man in 'Scream' Theft

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

 Oslo Police Charge Second Man in 'Scream' Theft
Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:24 AM ET 

OSLO (Reuters) - Oslo police charged a second man on Tuesday in connection
with stealing the painting "The Scream" last year and said they remained
hopeful of finding that and another missing masterpiece by Edvard Munch.
Police said the suspect, a man in his 30s, was already in jail for another
robbery, but they declined to identify him further. They charged a
37-year-old with being an accessory to the crime on Friday.

The famous 1893 painting and another Munch work "Madonna" were stolen by
armed robbers in a day-time raid on an Oslo art museum on Aug. 22 in front
of dozens of tourists.

Police repeated on Tuesday they were hopeful of recovering the missing
paintings.

"We have said earlier that this case is complicated and will take some time
... but we are optimistic," police attorney Morten Hojem Ervik told Reuters.

Two masked robbers ran into the Munch Museum, threatened staff with a
handgun and forced people to lie down before pulling the pictures off the
wall and walking out of the front door to a get-away car driven by a third
person.

"He is suspected of being one of the three robbers," Ervik said of the
suspect charged on Tuesday.

Norwegian media have said the art theft could be linked to a bank robbery in
southwestern Norway last year.

Ervik declined to comment on those reports.

"The Scream" shows a waif-like figure against a blood-red sky. "Madonna,"
also from 1893, shows a mysterious bare-breasted woman with flowing black
hair.

Worth millions of dollars, the pictures are among Munch's best-known,
although he produced several versions of both works. Police and art experts
have said the paintings are so well known that there is no market for them.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=industryNews&storyID=8157551